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Businesses across the South West are set to cash in on a new £4 million funding programme, run by the University of the West of England, Bristol.

Available to both small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large companies, the Innovation 4 Growth scheme will part fund research and development projects with grants of between £25,000 and £150,000.

Two budding entrepreneurs from UWE Bristol's enterprising BA Business (Team Entrepreneurs) degree were recently invited to parliament to contribute to a report on future leaders and entrepreneurship.

Year One Team Entrepreneur students, Rob Wilson and Tom Bromley, were selected as a result of a successful session that they led on 21st Century leaders at the University to a panel of business leaders and academics.

A new course at UWE Bristol aimed at producing graduates with degrees plus experience of running their own businesses has just welcomed its first cohort of 37 students.

The course structure is ground-breaking – no classrooms, compulsory lectures or exams - and has been introduced to the UK for the first time this year. Called Team Entrepreneurship, the degree course is based on methods pioneered in Finland and also run successfully in Spain and Hungary, and has been described as a revolution in management education.

The Environmental iNet, one of three innovation support projects led by UWE Bristol, has now amassed over 1,200 network subscribers. The venture was set up in 2011, along with similar projects in Microelectronics and Biomedical Sciences, with the specific intention of assisting regional businesses in realising their potential through sharing expertise and knowledge. The Environmental iNet has now provided over 400 businesses with one-to-one support, with over 260 receiving 12 hours or more.

UWE Bristol will award the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Business Administration to Mary Prior MBE DStJ JP in recognition of her remarkable record of public and charitable service and her outstanding business career.

The Honorary Degree will be conferred at the Awards Ceremony of the Faculty of Business and Law on Thursday 25 July at Bristol Cathedral.

Budding entrepreneurs from UWE Bristol have made it through to the finals of the National Student Apprentice competition in London on 20 June.

The team of four UWE students - Sam Venning, Dana Riedner, Sam Abbott and Laura Osbourne - came top out of ten South West universities in the regional heats. The Apprentice-style tasks including getting the best deals on buying typical Bristol items, selling art publications, and creating a plan to build a successful business.

An academic at UWE Bristol is part of a new research project to create a physical personal digital repository that will record and hold data on both a person's digital footprint and the physical patterns of their daily home life. The repository is owned by the individual (much like money in our banks) and could be used to trade and shape future services and products to individuals. The research is led by WMG at the University ofWarwick.

The internship programme, which was launched on 4 March 2013, encourages students in their first and second year of study, as well as returning students in their third year, to embark on 8 week internships at organisations within their field of interest.

The Deki and UWE Bristol Tenner Tournament held recently to raise awareness of the Deki charity and to challenge participants to grow a tenner into more funds has been a resounding success raising almost £2,000.

Students at UWE Bristol are preparing to take part in a two day competition run by UWE InnovEnterS as part of the National Student Apprentice Campaign.

The Regional Student Apprentice competition, which will take place on 23 and 24 March 2013 across UWE Bristol's Frenchay Campus and Friska on Queens Rd, pits student teams of four against each other in a series of 'Apprentice' style tasks that will test their ability to sell, design, market, pitch and even create a business. Representatives from businesses across the South West will develop, execute and judge each task, with the teams solving problems based on real life scenarios.

Small to medium sized companies in the South West can now get support to access UWE Bristol's expertise, helping them to innovate and grow. Under an exciting new European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) scheme, businesses can use subsidised vouchers to purchase academic support and research support from universities, colleges and public research bodies.